how to use macro to make my code

[Paul Wormer]

@alan-kilborn
You should have used an existing file with 920 lines. editor.lineDown() does not add a new line.

[Paul Wormer]

@paul-wormer
My solution was useless anyway now that I saw his BEFORE and AFTER. I, too, misunderstood his problem.

[Alan Kilborn]

@paul-wormer

I don’t think you have a handle on how to reply to postings here, evidence:

So you are telling me that I “should have used an existing file with 920 lines”. Well, I don’t know what that means, because I haven’t contributed in that way to this thread.

Also, you’re replying to yourself; this can be done, but try to do it only if it makes sense.

[Paul Wormer]

@alan-kilborn said in how to use macro to make my code:

II gave it a whirl and upon execution I got one really long line generated (12420 characters), that pretty much looks like this, over and over on that one line:

country= coutry_word=country_flag=country_code_number=

I’m not sure how that gets close to what the OP wants.

I am sorry that I don’t understand the mechanics of this particular forum. But my answer about editor.lineDown() was about your comment above.

[Alan Kilborn]

@paul-wormer said in how to use macro to make my code:

I am sorry that I don’t understand the mechanics of this particular forum. But my answer about editor.lineDown() was about your comment above.

Ah, apologies.
And you did say earlier:

Here I assume that you have an existing file of 920 lines

So I missed that.
Again, sorry.

---

Other thoughts:

editor.lineDown() isn’t really a great way to script something like this. It’s too “macro”-ish, and scripts give you the power to work with more of a data set rather than “careting” around a document as in a macro approach.

But…it is hard to say more, because I really don’t have a great grasp on the problem statement, as IMO the OP hasn’t made it very clear (and the longer that state persists, the less interested I am).

[PeterJones]

@alan-kilborn said in how to use macro to make my code:

as IMO the OP hasn’t made it very clear

Since the OP deleted their question and it had to be resurrected, I am pretty sure either the OP got the answer they needed, or they left in a huff because they couldn’t figure out how to make us understand what they wanted. Either way, I doubt the OP is going to come back and clarify, and I doubt there’s much point in our spending any more time on it (unless the OP does come back and clarify).

[Neil Schipper]

@peterjones said in how to use macro to make my code:

OP deleted their question and it had to be resurrected

@igor-lerinc A rather anti-social thing to do.

@peterjones said in how to use macro to make my code:

I doubt there’s much point in our spending any more time on it

I realized this morning an enhancement to the spreadsheet approach I suggested earlier I’d like to briefly describe.

Without too much difficulty a column could be added consisting of formulas to calculate the line number in the target file to be assembled.

Assuming 6 lines per case (1 for “case” stmnt, 4 vars, and 1 for static “break” stmnt),

the first bank, the “case” numbers, would have target line numbers 1,7,13… (1+(92-1)*6)

the second bank, the “country” fields would have target line numbers 2,8,14… (2+(92-1)*6)

etc.

Now the lines could be sorted, either in the spreadsheet or after xfer to text editor.

To make it amenable to upkeep and modification, one should define things like NUM_COUNTRIES (92) and LINES_PER_CASE (6 in my example), and use those in the formulas.

As before, there are many variations on implementation details, such as, doing C-ification early, in spreadsheet:
CONCAT spaces/tabs + "case " + case num " “:”
CONCAT spaces/tabs + “country=” + country text + “;”
etc
or late, in Npp using fancy regex in a F&R.

[Igor Lerinc]

this was the answer i was looking for:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/70632134/17848947

i just didn’t wanted to continue building on more misunderstandings trying to explain further and waste anyone’s time…

[guy038]

Hello, @igor-lerinc, @peterjones, @alan-kilborn, @neil-schipper, @paul-wormer and All;

I found out a nice solution with a minimum of actions to proceed ! This further method is rather difficult to express but is finally easy to execute :-))

I will expose my method with a short list of 6 countries ( Andorre, United Arab Emirates, Afganistan, Albania, Armenia and Angola ) which, of course, can be extend to your 230 items and even more !

Basically, you have three informative zones and two pseudo-zones case n; and R.drawable.flag_ + the current country code, located on the next line

Let’s place each of these 5 zones in a different file, from file A.txt to file E.txt. Presently, the files B, C and E will contain 6 informative lines and files A and D are still empty !

---

• In the B.txt file :

  • Move to the very beginning of file

  • Create a zero-length rectangular selection onto the 6 lines

  • Open the Column Editor ( Alt + C )

  • Choose the Number to Insert radio button

  • Initial number 2

  • Increase by 5

  • Repeat 1

  • Tick the Leading zeros option

  • Click on the OK button

=> You should get the numbering : 02, 07, 12, 17, 22, 27

• In the C.txt file :

  • Move to the very beginning of file

  • Create a zero-length rectangular selection onto the 6 lines

  • Open the Column Editor ( Alt + C )

  • Choose the Number to Insert radio button

  • Initial number 3

  • Increase by 5

  • Repeat 1

  • Tick the Leading zeros option

  • Click on the OK button

=> You should get the numbering : 03, 08, 13, 18, 23, 28

• In the E.txt file :

  • Move to the very beginning of file

  • Create a zero-length rectangular selection onto the 6 lines

  • Open the Column Editor ( Alt + C )

  • Choose the Number to Insert radio button

  • Initial number 5

  • Increase by 5

  • Repeat 1

  • Tick the Leading zeros option

  • Click on the OK button

=> You should get the numbering : 05, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30

• In the D.txt empty file :

  • Hit 6 times on the Enter key

  • Insert a semicolon character on each line

  • Move to the very beginning of file

  • Create a zero-length rectangular selection onto these 6 lines

  • Open the Column Editor ( Alt + C )

  • Choose the Number to Insert radio button

  • Initial number 4

  • Increase by 5

  • Repeat 1

  • Tick the Leading zeros option

  • Click on the OK button

=> You should get the numbering : 04, 09, 14, 19, 24, 29, followed with a semicolon

• Finally, in the A.txt empty file :

  • Hit 6 times on the Enter key

  • Move to the very beginning of file

  • Create a zero-length rectangular selection onto these 6 lines

  • Open the Column Editor ( Alt + C )

  • Choose the Number to Insert radio button

  • Initial number 1

  • Increase by 5

  • Repeat 1

  • Tick the Leading zeros option

  • Click on the OK button

=> You should get the numbering : 01, 06, 11, 16, 21, 26

• Secondly :

  • Move the caret at end of the first line

  • Create, again, a zero-lengh rectangular selection onto these 6 lines

  • Open the Column Editor ( Alt + C )

  • Choose the Number to Insert radio button

  • Initial number 1

  • Increase by 1, this time

  • Repeat 1

  • Untick the Leading zeros option, this time

  • Click on the OK button

You should get the final numbering : 011, 062, 113, 164, 215, 266

---

Then, let’s merge the files, from A.txt to E.txt, in any order, in a new tab, renamed as Resul.txt, which possible blank lines in between. You obtain this text :

011
062
113
164
215
266


02"ad"
07"ae"
12"af"
17"al"
22"am"
27"an"

03"+376"
08"+971"
13"+93"
18"+355"
23"+374"
28"+244"


04;
09;
14;
19;
24;
29;

05"Andorra"
10"United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
15"Afghanistan"
20"Albania"
25"Armenia"
30"Angola"

• Perform a classical sort with the Edit > Line Operations > Sort Lines Lexicographically Ascending option. After deleting the first possible blank lines, you’re left with these Result.txt contents :

011
02"ad"
03"+376"
04;
05"Andorra"
062
07"ae"
08"+971"
09;
10"United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
113
12"af"
13"+93"
14;
15"Afghanistan"
164
17"al"
18"+355"
19;
20"Albania"
215
22"am"
23"+374"
24;
25"Armenia"
266
27"an"
28"+244"
29;
30"Angola"

• Move to the very beginning of file

• For the last time, do a zero-length rectangular selection onto the 30 lines

• Delete the first two digits, hitting twice the Delete key

The Resul.txt file becomes :

1
"ad"
"+376"
;
"Andorra"
2
"ae"
"+971"
;
"United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
3
"af"
"+93"
;
"Afghanistan"
4
"al"
"+355"
;
"Albania"
5
"am"
"+374"
;
"Armenia"
6
"an"
"+244"
;
"Angola"

Almost finished ! Open the Replace dialog and performs this regex S/R :

SEARCH (?-s)^(\d+)\R(.+)\R(.+)\R(.+)\R"(.+)"(\R)

REPLACE \tcase \1:\6\t\tcountry=\2\6\t\tcountry_code_number=\3\6\t\tcountry_flag=R\.drawable\.flag_\5;\6\t\tcountry_word="\5"\6\t\tbreak;\6

Magically, the text is changed into :

	case 1:
		country="ad"
		country_code_number="+376"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Andorra;
		country_word="Andorra"
		break;
	case 2:
		country="ae"
		country_code_number="+971"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_United Arab Emirates (UAE);
		country_word="United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
		break;
	case 3:
		country="af"
		country_code_number="+93"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Afghanistan;
		country_word="Afghanistan"
		break;
	case 4:
		country="al"
		country_code_number="+355"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Albania;
		country_word="Albania"
		break;
	case 5:
		country="am"
		country_code_number="+374"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Armenia;
		country_word="Armenia"
		break;
	case 6:
		country="an"
		country_code_number="+244"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Angola;
		country_word="Angola"
		break;

To end, run this second regex S/R :

SEARCH (?s)(?!\r|\n).+

REPLACE switch (5) {\r\n$0\tdefault:\r\n\tconsole.log\(\x96Nothing here\x96\);\r\n\t}\r\n

And here is, Igor, your expected result :

switch 5 {
	case 1:
		country="ad"
		country_code_number="+376"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Andorra;
		country_word="Andorra"
		break;
	case 2:
		country="ae"
		country_code_number="+971"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_United Arab Emirates (UAE);
		country_word="United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
		break;
	case 3:
		country="af"
		country_code_number="+93"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Afghanistan;
		country_word="Afghanistan"
		break;
	case 4:
		country="al"
		country_code_number="+355"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Albania;
		country_word="Albania"
		break;
	case 5:
		country="am"
		country_code_number="+374"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Armenia;
		country_word="Armenia"
		break;
	case 6:
		country="an"
		country_code_number="+244"
		country_flag=R.drawable.flag_Angola;
		country_word="Angola"
		break;
	default:
	console.log(`Nothing here`);
	}

Best Regards

guy038

P.S. :

• Your Two-letters country, in the B.txt file, represents the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard for each country

• Your Country_code_number, in the C.txt file, represents the E_164 codes standard for each country

Refer to this main link :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code

[Paul Wormer]

@guy038
Congratulations with your ingenious solution. Although it seems to me that an editor - any editor - is not quite the right tool for this job. It is as if you are explaining how to build a wooden chicken coop with as only tool the heel of a shoe.